EFT-1 Orion rolls out to greet her Delta IV-H rocket

The Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) Orion has taken her final journey on terra firma, following rollout to the Delta IV-Heavy that is tasked with lofting her on a key test flight next month. The first flight worthy Orion will be mated with the United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket later this week, ahead of the final readiness reviews to approve the mission.
EFT-1 Rollout:

For EFT-1, Orion was rolled out to SLC-37 at Cape Canaveral, the natural Florida home of the big ULA rocket. Rollout was initially delayed 24 hours due to weather constraints, ahead of a successful journey on Wednesday morning.

The rollout milestone took place after the final round of processing was completed ahead of the big move.

“Final assembly stages included installation of shims on two bumpers; installation and inspection of tangential fittings; completion of the Launch Abort System (LAS) thermal umbilical seal; and removal of scaffolding on the vehicle.

“The Orion team successfully performed a purge test to verify the leak rate. The Orion vehicle lifting and weighing was successfully completed.”

With the vehicle now at SLC-37, mating operations will involve the spacecraft being raised 170 feet up into the air and mated to the rocket.

Engineers will then check out the integrated stack by powering up the interfaces between the two vehicles. A Launch Readiness Review (LRR) will then take place, at which point the launch date will be officially set.

The TFRR was used to verifying readiness of the NASA support to this mission: the MCC, the recovery force and TDRSS/comm support. EFT-1 Lockheed Martin’s “President Review” also took place earlier this month.

United Launch Alliance EFT-1 Program Management Readiness Review and Lockheed Martin EFT-1 Readiness Review will take place on November 20, while November 25 will see the ULA Mission Dress Rehearsal conducted.

(Images: Via L2, Lockheed Martin and NASA).

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